MUST WEEK 2024 | Library edition

02–⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠06/09 2024

Central Library
Faculty of Science

In the first week of September, the Faculty of Science hosted MUST Week (Masaryk University Staff Training Week), a regular event during which MU staff members share their professional experience with colleagues from foreign universities.

The event aims to establish cooperation with foreign higher education institutions, to enrich each other in terms of working practices and know-how, to inspire each other in the field of innovation or services, to create a network of international contacts and, last but not least, to get acquainted with the environment and culture of the host place.

Staff Training Week is not the prerogative of a single workplace; the librarian one has been held intermittently for more than ten years and this year, for the first time, the Central Library of the Faculty of Science was entrusted with hosting it. In this directorship, the focus was on library practice and related topics.

A total of ten international participants came from university libraries in Spain, Hungary, France, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland.

The thematically diverse programme was divided into five working days and offered a series of lectures, workshops or tours of selected university libraries. Participants were introduced to topics touching on Open Science, AI or well-being, among others, always in the context of MU practice and the library environment.

Monday's session was opened with a welcome by Markéta Munzarová, Vice-Dean for Cooperation with Secondary Schools, Talent Management, Social Affairs and Lifelong Learning of the MU Faculty of Science, and Taťána Škarková, Director of the MU Faculty of Arts Central Library. This was followed by a lecture introducing the birth of the MUNI LIB brand, representing all Masaryk University libraries. In the next parts of the programme, the network of MU libraries and an overview of their centralized services were presented. In the afternoon part of each day, international participants gave presentations focused on the specifics of their home libraries, successful and unsuccessful projects, long-term challenges, visions of development, etc.

Tuesday's programme focused on topics related to the science support at MU. The lectures offered insights into the implementation of EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) in the Czech Republic, as well as into the issue of publishing in predatory journals and the creation of systematic reviews from the perspective of the University Campus Library practice. The participants also got acquainted with the way of data processing according to the so-called Internal Methodology of the Faculty of Arts or the way the library of the Scientific Information Centre offers support in publishing working papers or policy reports.

Wednesday offered a lecture and a workshop, both focused on the topic of artificial intelligence, which is increasingly permeating library practice and, in addition to its many opportunities, also poses a number of threats that need to be made more widely known so that the use of AI is truly helpful and ultimately safe.

Thursday's programme included presentations on the practice of teaching librarians at MU,
the so-called Masaryk Teaching Librarians, and specifically the subjects of the Information Literacy course and the Digital Competences and Tools course. This was followed by a presentation by the CERPEK Centre on how the Centre looks after the well-being of the MU employees.
The afternoon part thematically continued with well-being, namely with a workshop that focused on the interconnection of mental and physical well-being, not only theoretically, but also through practical methods and exercises that can be incorporated into everyday functioning at home and in the workplace.

Friday was dedicated to the visit of Teiresiás Centre for Assistance to Students with Specific Needs and to the University Campus Library. The tours concluded the event.

In addition to the official programme, an afternoon cultural programme was prepared for the participants, allowing guests to experience Brno from a non-professional perspective. Despite the voluntary participation, most of the guests did not miss the programme. They had the opportunity to take a tour of the historical centre of Brno, visit the Capuchin Crypt and Ossuary at St. James’s Church, take a boat trip to Veveří Castle or enjoy a social evening at iconic Brno bars.

Among other things, the event was judged a success based on a questionnaire survey among the participants. The host library will undoubtedly want to build on this success for the upcoming event. However, who it will be, has not yet been determined.